Slickers

I have a thing for the movie City Slickers which was a favorite of my oldest son. We watched it many times, and we still plan to do one of those trail rides one day.

The film has some moments that really click for me though...

Mitch has to give a talk to his son's class about his job. He hates his job at that point. It's his 39th birthday and he feels like it has all been a waste. Here's what he tells the dazed kids in his son's elementary school class:

Value this time in your life kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly.

When you're a teenager you think you can do anything, and you do.

Your twenties are a blur. Your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, "What happened to my twenties?"

Your forties, you grow a little pot belly you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother.

Your fifties you have a minor surgery. You'll call it a procedure, but it's a surgery.

Your sixties you have a major surgery, the music is still loud but it doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway.

Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale, you start eating dinner at two, lunch around ten, breakfast the night before. And you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering "how come the kids don't call?"

By your eighties, you've had a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can't stand but who you call mama. Any questions?

 

Daniel Stern (Phil), Billy Crystal (Mitch), Bruno Kirby (Ed)

The three city slickers get into a discussion of their best and worst days. Ed doesn't want to play, but they push him.

Ed: I'm 14 and my mother and father are fighting again... y'know, because she caught him again. Caught him... This time the girl drove by the house to pick him up. And I finally realized, he wasn't just cheating on my mother, he was cheating us. So I told him, I said, "You're bad to us. We don't love you. I'll take care of my mother and my sister. We don't need you any more." And he made like he was gonna hit me, but I didn't budge. And he turned around and he left. He never bothered us again. Well, I took care of my mother and my sister from that day on. That's my best day.

Phil: Geez, what was your worst day?

Ed: Same day.

Finally, Curly, the "real" cowboy that they meet up with in the film is pressed by Mitch about what he thinks is the secret of life (which is what he assumes he is looking for).

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? [holds up one finger] This.

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.

Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?"

Curly: That's what you have to find out.

Comments

[keylogger for iPad]

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[web filter]

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[Matt Wanniski]

Great movie, great message. I once spent 2 weeks horseback riding through Wyoming and it was a great experience. We even had our own Curly. I'll never forget it.